Kochi: Congress leader Deepthi Mary Varghese has confirmed that LDF convenor and CPM central committee member E P Jayarajan had approached her to switch sides ahead of Thrikkakara by-polls. Political fixer Nandakumar also accompanied Jayarajan when the offer was made, she said, adding they were given the apt reply that time itself.
She had attached scant importance to the visit then and hence did not deem it necessary to disclose that overture, she claimed.
Deepthi said she had upheld lofty ideals and dons the organisational stature to snub such an offer, even if it came from Jayarajan’s boss CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
She also took a dig at P Rajeeve terming him as a “dummy minister”, adding that is why he was not privy to the visit by Jayarajan. She was responding to Rajeeve’s comment on the issue that “some people needed to proclaim their existence with such statements”.
She also said Rajeeve was a leader who used obscene language than even Arsho (SFI state president) in the 80s, adding he “used to teach how to use torture rooms, in an apparent reference to Veterinary varsity student Sidharth’s brutal assaulted and murder recently by purported SFI leaders.
“If P Rajeeve makes any more noise,” Deepthi said she was ready to retort.
She clarified that she had responded on the issue only because the political fixer had mentioned her name and it was her responsibility to clear the air.
“P Rajeeve made some remarks about me. Rajeeve, whom I knew even before he became the Industries minister, frequently visited Maharaja's College in the 1990s. As we debate about SFI’s torture rooms, the question is why did he visit the college when he was not a student but a DYFI leader,” Deepthi wondered.
“I know why Rajeeve had come to union offices and torture rooms,” she said, adding, that she was the college unit president of the KSU then.
She charged that Rajeeve had scripted and directed the attack by SFI activists on women leaders including herself. Deepthi said she knew on what basis Rajeeve became a minister and urged him not to provoke her to reveal “that history.”
